THE RAVERS/DEAR MRS. APPLEBEE 63-3069 (-67) GERMANY

"The Ravers" was one of many aliases German sixties beat group The Tonics used when doing bread jobs for budget labels, recording covers of known songs for cheap sales. It seems most they released under own name were covers too, especially the albums which seems to have followed contemporary tastes with titles like "The Tonics Hit Parade", "Tanzparty Mit Den Tonics", "That's Rock'n'roll" and "Bubble Gum Music". Back then there were a large number of outfits working anonymously in studios for budget labels trying to cash in on the flavour of the day, or doing uncredited backing for more or less promising singers. Much of it coming out bleak and uninspired with sometimes subpar production and audio. That is not the case here. You can hear these guys have been in this game for a long time already. Even if faithful to the originals they know exactly what they're doing and yield own versions rather than just copying. Lead singer is good and the band tight enough to balance the often sparse arrangements. Not up there with the originals, but good enough listening and the audio a-ok. Favorite track - "Just A Little Bit" done with feeling and a very dirty guitar towards the end. To my knowledge this was the only release. It had label as shown here, thick vinyl and thin matt cover. (GÖXÄ*)